Very interesting comments by Marcelo Bielsa here regarding how a congested fixture list has affected the quality of football in his opinion, which he feels is a result of over commercialisation.
I actually think he makes a good point as there are too many competitions in football at the moment, with quite a few of them being bloated in such a way that it has made them less interesting to watch (such as the Champions League, the World Cup and the continental championships in Europe, Africa and Asia). Also I've noticed the amount of times I've seen or heard elite players having pretty scary health issues (such as Eriksen, Aguero, Fleck and Wyke) in the last few months surely isn't a coincidence, as quite a few of these haven't really had a substantial break since football resumed after the first lockdown.
There's definitely a lot more international fixtures than there used to be, which is probably explained by the dissolution of the USSR and Yugoslavia which has created over 30 national teams as a result, so you have more games as more teams are entering competitions. However I do not see how expanding the World Cup to 48 teams will do any good to the quality of the football or the players' health, as for me the current 32-team format is about right. Also the Euros has suffered from having 24 teams qualify as in my opinion there definitely aren't enough good teams in Europe to justify that number of participants (for example this summer you had the likes of Finland, North Macedonia and Scotland that offered nothing in terms of excitement and quality who probably would not have qualified with the old format)
The over bloating of tournaments isn't limited to men's football too, as the Women's World Cup is being expanded to 32 teams for the next edition in 2023 (having only been increased to 24 as recently as 2015) and as sadly as the gap in development and financial funding between countries in the women's game is greater than in the men's I can see quite a few lop-sided matches happening, and it wouldn't do the women's game much good in terms of reputation and gaining more fans if there are say five 10-0 scorelines in the same tournament (which I fear will happen). You should only expand a competition if you're sure you have enough teams around that would still make it competitive
Its not like these PL teams don't have big enough squads now is it. Looks like getting in excuses early, You should see some of the schedules for non-league teams at say step 4 and these goys have ordinary jobs to hold down too. Football is overly commercialised but with that we have more for the armchair fans you can't have it all.
Congested schedules is surely a myth for most Premier League sides, as they only play 38 league games, no replays in the League Cup and only 1 replay in the FA Cup until later rounds when it’s settled on the day. How many midweek league programmes are there?? Very few.
The problem is all the midweeks that have to be left blank for the oversized overhyped “Champions” League and the Europa League l. So it’s only clubs in those competitions that have anything remotely approaching hectic, but yet they all want to fight desperately to get in that top 4…
International breaks contribute as well because as has been said, there are more countries in Europe now, meaning bigger qualification groups.
Congested playing schedules has also been wheeled out for over the last half-century as a reason why the English National team have not been successful in summer tournaments... apparently our players are all knackered after ten months of non-stop high-intensity competition and way past their performance peak.
Say what you will about the farcical & morally questionable decision to hold the World Cup finals in Qatar in Winter... it might go some way towards establishing if this is an excuse, a myth or actually has a factual basis...(?)
Congested schedules is surely a myth for most Premier League sides, as they only play 38 league games, no replays in the League Cup and only 1 replay in the FA Cup until later rounds when it’s settled on the day. How many midweek league programmes are there?? Very few.
The problem is all the midweeks that have to be left blank for the oversized overhyped “Champions” League and the Europa League l. So it’s only clubs in those competitions that have anything remotely approaching hectic, but yet they all want to fight desperately to get in that top 4…
International breaks contribute as well because as has been said, there are more countries in Europe now, meaning bigger qualification groups.
and those oversized overhyped PL teams have enough players to put out 2 sides in the PL and I doubt either would even be involved in a relegation battle!
The football season used to finish at the end of April, with the F A Cup then being completed with the final at the beginning of May - the clubs then decided to introduce the play-off system that extended the season by a month - with the F A Cup then at the end of May - these days the FA Cup is now played alongside other matches with the playoff following -
Let's revert back to the teams that finish in the automatic promotion places get promoted and get rid of the play off system which would reduce games in the EFL and National Leagues allowing all games to be completed at the end of April - giving players at least 8 weeks off if not involved in international teams, then they get extra time to recover before returning to their pre-season in July.
But as we know its all about money and all clubs would be against this as it gives extra revenue as these matches are not included in season tickets as far as I'm aware.
What really gives me the hump is, away teams not playing in their traditional kits when there is no colour clash. Even the match officials only wore black.............. Don't get me started on the silly coloured boots worn either !!!!
The football season used to finish at the end of April, with the F A Cup then being completed with the final at the beginning of May - the clubs then decided to introduce the play-off system that extended the season by a month - with the F A Cup then at the end of May - these days the FA Cup is now played alongside other matches with the playoff following -
Let's revert back to the teams that finish in the automatic promotion places get promoted and get rid of the play off system which would reduce games in the EFL and National Leagues allowing all games to be completed at the end of April - giving players at least 8 weeks off if not involved in international teams, then they get extra time to recover before returning to their pre-season in July.
But as we know its all about money and all clubs would be against this as it gives extra revenue as these matches are not included in season tickets as far as I'm aware.
I think the play offs could be better organised. The semis happen within a week and then a long wait to the final. Without play offs you get a lot of meaningless games from Feb to April.
What really gives me the hump is, away teams not playing in their traditional kits when there is no colour clash. Even the match officials only wore black.............. Don't get me started on the silly coloured boots worn either !!!!
JTG
The thing that annoys me more is when teams wear their away kits for a home game, I've seen it in UEFA club competitions a lot as well as in international fixtures. For example England should always wear white whenever they play at Wembley, but it's all just a thing to try and get people to buy more overpriced shirts anyway
The football season used to finish at the end of April, with the F A Cup then being completed with the final at the beginning of May - the clubs then decided to introduce the play-off system that extended the season by a month - with the F A Cup then at the end of May - these days the FA Cup is now played alongside other matches with the playoff following -
Let's revert back to the teams that finish in the automatic promotion places get promoted and get rid of the play off system which would reduce games in the EFL and National Leagues allowing all games to be completed at the end of April - giving players at least 8 weeks off if not involved in international teams, then they get extra time to recover before returning to their pre-season in July.
But as we know its all about money and all clubs would be against this as it gives extra revenue as these matches are not included in season tickets as far as I'm aware.
I think the play offs could be better organised. The semis happen within a week and then a long wait to the final. Without play offs you get a lot of meaningless games from Feb to April.
Logically it would make sense to have the first leg of playoffs played the weekend after the regular season ends, then second leg the weekend after and final the following weekend. But everything is dictated by what the broadcasters want nowadays which is why you have ridiculous kick off times
Do you all think there is too much football shown on TV at the moment? I felt like especially last season there was just such an overload of it that it doesn't feel much like an event anymore whenever it is on (especially compared to say a Formula 1 Grand Prix)
I think the play offs could be better organised. The semis happen within a week and then a long wait to the final. Without play offs you get a lot of meaningless games from Feb to April.
Logically it would make sense to have the first leg of playoffs played the weekend after the regular season ends, then second leg the weekend after and final the following weekend. But everything is dictated by what the broadcasters want nowadays which is why you have ridiculous kick off times
Do you all think there is too much football shown on TV at the moment? I felt like especially last season there was just such an overload of it that it doesn't feel much like an event anymore whenever it is on (especially compared to say a Formula 1 Grand Prix)
Possibly; I think there is a danger of people becoming bored with top-level football due to saturation.
Logically it would make sense to have the first leg of playoffs played the weekend after the regular season ends, then second leg the weekend after and final the following weekend. But everything is dictated by what the broadcasters want nowadays which is why you have ridiculous kick off times
Do you all think there is too much football shown on TV at the moment? I felt like especially last season there was just such an overload of it that it doesn't feel much like an event anymore whenever it is on (especially compared to say a Formula 1 Grand Prix)
Possibly; I think there is a danger of people becoming bored with top-level football due to saturation.
I've got pretty bored of the Premier League to be honest, I don't tend to watch a game unless I am with friends really